slow cooker stuffing with sausage and kale
Crock pot stuffing with sausage and kale is a staple on our Thanksgiving menu. Cooking stuffing in the slow cooker frees up not only valuable time, but valuable oven space, and the result is a flavorful, moist and delicious Thanksgiving dish!
Servings 10 -12 servings
Ingredients
- 1 loaf wheat bread 1 lb, 4 oz cut into cubes
- 1 onion diced
- 5 stalks celery diced
- 2 cups kale washed and chopped
- 3 tbsp butter
- 12-16 oz breakfast sausage I prefer Neese's hot sausage
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp fresh sage
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cup chicken broth divided
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and place bread on baking sheet. Bake bread for 25-30 minutes until bread dries out. Place bread cubes in large mixing bowl.
- While bread is baking, brown cook sausage over medium heat large skillet. When sausage is cooked, remove sausage from skillet and drain. Pour sausage in same bowl as bread.
- Add butter to the same skillet, and then sauté onion and celery until soft (with a lot of patience, wait until onions start to caramelize). Once soft, add kale, and saute until wilted.
- Add herbs and stir until aromatic.
- Add about 1/3 to 1/2 cup chicken broth, and stir, making sure to scrap up browned bits from bottom of the pan.
- Once broth comes to boil, remove from heat and pour on top of sausage and bread mixture.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk remaining broth, egg and salt and pepper. Pour on top of bread mixture.
- Make an aluminum foil band and place on sides of slow cooker (to prevent burning). Spray with non stick spray.
- Transfer bread mixture bowl to slow cooker. Cook on low 4 to 5 hours until stuffing is moist and edges are crispy.
